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Inspired by Ariana Grande’s “Dangerous Woman”.

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With The Dillinger Escape Plan having toured all over the place for the last couple years celebrating Calculating Infinity with original vocalist Dimitri Minakakis, some fans have continued to ask the obvious question: what about Greg Puciato? The question on everyone’s mind really should be, “would Greg Puciato ever come back to TDEP?”

Well, we now have a bit of an answer from the man himself, as Puciato addressed the question while speaking with Lochlan Watt on Music Is My Life (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). And what we got was a lengthy, albeit in-depth, look into his thought process about the end of Dillinger and his relationship with the band he fronted from 2001 to 2017.

“It’s hard [not to] because it’s in your face all the time. It’s in my face all the time. It’s impossible [not to think about it]. Every single show, there’s people with the shirts, every single show there’s people outside that [have] a record [for me] to sign. They’ve got Ire Works, they’ve got One Of Us Is The Killer, or they’re asking me about it. But I’m proud of it. I’m not, like, ‘Fuck, that’s not me anymore. No one talk to me about that.’ I’m proud of it. It made both of our, and everyone involved, lives possible to a degree. Everything that anyone who is majorly important in that band has done since stemmed from our involvement with each other. So I look at it positively. There’s not a single ounce of me that has any negativity towards it.

“And, yeah, I would say that every day of my life, I’m aware of it, but I’m not thinking about it, if that makes sense. Because you can’t — you need to let yourself be who you are right now. I think the only way to do that is to keep looking forward. You can be aware of what happened behind you, but you don’t wanna like turn around and look at it. Just kind of be aware of it. It’s no different to me than high school or middle school or elementary school. You know that you went through it, it’s a huge part of your development, you’re proud of everything that happened during that time, or an ex or something like that, but you gotta keep going that way.”

We get older, we change and that’s ultimately for the best. Read ya loud and clear, man. But what about his thoughts about Minakakis’ return to the band? Surely he’s got some thoughts about that.

“Calculating Infinity is massively important. I bought it the day it came out. I was a fan of that band… But, yeah, Dimitri was perfect on that record. That record’s got a vibe that, unlike all of our other records, it’s a very isolated vibe, whereas after that, we started becoming a different band, where we had pretty much a lot of different possibilities vocally and creatively. But I think that that record is so pointed — it’s such a pointed vibe — and for me it’s still cool.

“It’s so funny ’cause people expect me to have some negative [opinion of what they are doing], like, ‘Fuck that.’ But I wasn’t on that record. What would be goofy is if I was included in that. I don’t have anything to do with that record. Why would I go out and play that record? If they’re doing like a playthrough of that record, I don’t need to be there just for the fuck of it. If they went out and did a Miss Machine playthrough, or a One Of Us Is The Killer playthrough… I mean, they, obviously that’s not gonna happen, but…”

Puciato fronted the band for 16 years, with his final album being the 2016 album Dissociation. That album ended up getting a year long tour, with the band playing three final shows at New York City’s Terminal 5. As for whether he’d ever join the band to celebrate one of the albums he was on, Puciato sounded less sure that it would be a thing at all.

“There’s something about doing that, to me, that you really gotta put a cap on it if you were to do it. I feel like it would be a concession in a way to like be, like, ‘Oh, I’m no longer…’ That’s what I used to think. I would be, like, ‘Oh, I, I need to be creatively valid now.’ It doesn’t really interest me, ’cause it takes a lot of your time to do that. And I have a lot of gas for doing new things. I wanna write new music. I wanna write new songs, do new things, collaborate with new people. I’m excited about music, I’m excited about art, and I’m excited about singing. You already have to drag around something you already did when you go on tour. We already were playing songs from 15 years ago when the band was still going. We were playing Panasonic Youth every night, and it started to become, like, ‘Fucking hell, man. How many times…?’ … So you gotta step away. So when the band ended, I would’ve told you no way. There’s no fucking way. It’s gonna take too much of my time. I came outta that band just feeling like I was shot out of a rocket and like I had so much fuel for doing new shit. There was no question. I wasn’t, like, ‘What am I gonna do now?’ I was filled with fuel.

“Now — would I do it? I wouldn’t do a Miss Machine playthrough, ’cause I think that’s a little weird. There’s no real need. They’re doing a one album playthrough, because that’s the only album really that there is [with Dimitri], besides the EPs and stuff. It would have to encapsulate everything from Miss Machine to Dissociation, and it would have to have a cap on it. Because the more you start doing that — it’s easy money too, and then you’re, like, you start feeling, like, you’re getting this money, but your life is passing. I’m 46 almost, and it’s, like, what am I gonna do? Do it for a couple years, then suddenly you’re 48. You can’t let it take up too much of your time. You gotta just keep doing new things. And then you get hooked… There is something about it where you have to feel good about the fact that you got enough new things going that that’s not your whole identity anymore, and you could still go back to it without it sucking up all your time.”

The post Greg Puciato Weighs in on Whether He’d Ever Reunite with The Dillinger Escape Plan appeared first on MetalSucks.

Back in the day, bands that had women in them were more of a precious commodity than ubiquitous without notice. In the rock world, we had women like Stevie Nicks, Joan Jett, and Blondie holding it down with the masses. Despite the late ‘90s and early 2000s giving us releases from legends like Lacuna Coil and Evanescence, metal especially has always been dominated by men. White, straight men. And when it came to attending shows back in the day, the audiences (especially the pits) were much of the same, drenched in sweat and an offensive lack of deodorant.

No matter what section of the metal world you’re sitting in, I’d venture to say you’ve definitely seen, heard, or experienced some level of adversity as a non-man at some point. The invalidation; the belief that a woman could never (or at least, rarely) do anything remotely more brutal than bubblegum pop or something hyper-sexualized. There’s nothing wrong with either of those things, but the inherent dismissal of women being able to do anything other than those things, is. A term like “female-fronted” or emphasizing that a band has a “chick” playing any instrument, has usually served as a way to throw some sort of congratulatory shade at a woman doing anything other than what widely we’re accepting of them doing. It’s reductive, especially when we’ve had so many queenpins throughout the years.

Take Maria Ferrero, aka Metal Maria, for instance. She’s been, as she’s said herself, “turning artists into household names since 1983,” and that’s no joke. Maria’s been around the metaphorical metal block working with bands through her company Adrenaline PR and more. But, even though she’s played a large hand in literally all of our favorite names (she literally SIGNED Ministry in the ‘90s, y’all), that doesn’t mean she’s immune to the bullshit. She just doesn’t take it lying down.

“I’ve been around for over 45 years going to shows like Metallica, Plasmatics, Black Flag, Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies, and Godflesh. There were barely any other women at shows as fans, let alone as artists on stage taking a leap to share their talent onstage or to become music industry folk. That’s why I pride myself on being a part of the metal music industry at an actual level of importance such as signing bands like Testament and Vio-lence  and all as a suburban New Jersey woman, all before I was 21.”

Y’all better put some respect on her name and, for the most part, you have. It’s all the other women in the genre whose, though it has improved, flowers deserve to bloom outside of festival and award seasons.

Many of us, while likely nowhere near possessing as awesome of a resume as Ferrero, started our relationship with metal as angelic, angry little shits looking for an escape. And, since we started so young, we have literal years of worth of chauvinism to reference. That makes it hard NOT to get giddy about seeing another lady actively doing what they’re try so hard to exclude us from doing, so in that sense, using a descriptor like “female-fronted” could be like a somewhat welcomed dogwhistle.

At least, that was more of the case before the internet allowed for you to look up bands yourself, or find people who were able to freely speak on which artists are phenomenal without being bound by the confines of editors or media conglomerates with less supportive agendas and penchants for suppression.

Like Ebonie Butler, better known online as Metal and Coffee. She’s a streamer and music appreciator, since her content focuses more on uplifting voices in metal than outright critiquing them. Her beginnings in metal will likely sound very familiar to many of you gals, and especially us Black ones.

“In the beginning, I was treated like a foreigner in the space. Men used to ask me about the shirt I was wearing because they thought I stole it from a partner or something. And people often thought that I just wanted to be white so bad and that’s the reason I would go to shows. Which I always found funny because who would intentional put themselves in a space where no one looks like them, just to kiss people’s asses and try to be accepted? That shit is so uncomfortable. 

“I went to shows by myself for the music. I would find my little corner and block everyone out. A perfect night would be where I was literally invisible and it was just be engulfed in gutturals and blast beats.”

I’d say “engulfed in gutturals” is a fair assessment of what it’s like to be at a show for sure, but it’s not taken as seriously when women try to do it. Now at 38, Butler’s alienation has morphed further into a means of supporting others who’ve gone through much of the same thing.

“The people that have recognized me at shows have been really sweet,” Butler says. “I especially love it when a woman and/or Black follower comes up to me to share how me being vocal online has made them feel welcome in the space.”

Needless to say—since it’s kind of the point of this whole article—that exclusionary energy also extends its grubby little negative hands to the talent sector of the metal world as well. Apparent talent aside, when it comes to women playing in bands, the hands that hold the instrument bear more weight than what they do with it.

Emma Boster, the vocalist of Portland, Oregon-based metalcore band Dying Wish, is a good example of this. Boster’s got some powerful cords in that throat but, especially when the band first started, it didn’t seem like that mattered as much as that it came out of her specifically.

“I’ve been screaming in a band for almost ten years and the amount of times I’ve heard ‘I don’t usually like when girls are in bands but I like your band’ is seriously disheartening. I fear that people think women being in bands feels like a trend to some people. There isn’t as much violence around being a woman in the scene as there used to be and in that way it has gotten better. But I think there is still a lot for us to unpack and work towards treating women in bands equally.”

From the stage to the pit to the page, women’s presence in metal have been treated like a trope. Like the red-headed stepchildren of metal’s family tree, if you will; an afterthought of consideration and appreciation in terms of talent, no matter how evident. Recently though, metal in general has been getting more recognition on a larger scale, like Gojira’s visually stunning 2024 Olympics performance, or Knocked Loose’s Jimmy Kimmel performance from that same year. Still, those accolades have by and large been reserved for metal men, save for Poppy’s 2021 Grammy nom for “Bloodmoney” and Spiritbox’s 2024 and 2025 nominations for “Jaded” and “Cellar Door,” respectively (though Poppy was also nominated along with Knocked Loose for “Suffocate” last year as well). While women being in bands has always been a thing, appreciating them has risen in popularity, especially with names like Poppy and Courtney LaPlante gaining such household recognition.

The positive shift surely isn’t lost on Boster:

“The overall vibe is much more positive but there are still a lot of nasty comments (which I don’t read anymore). I think the biggest thing I’ve noticed lately is our expectation of perfection is a different standard than our male counterparts. We are expected to be pretty and in good shape as if our job is to appeal to the male gaze and not play breakdowns. We also are criticized vocally far more than men who scream. I think overall the popularity of women in bands is responsible but I also think what’s really critical is how MANY women are in known bands as opposed to a decade ago you could almost name them on one hand.”

Now that publications are getting better at using different descriptors and expanding the repertoire of who they cover in general, the bias is thankfully becoming slightly less discernible. That doesn’t mean we’re in the clear yet though, so normalizing women’s presence in the genre should always be a priority. I know I, much like Butler, will continue to scour the ends of the internet in search of what’s good:

“I think it’s slowly becoming less shocking to see women in metal although I still personally get excited when I see it. We are still a minority so effort still needs to be put in to bring us to the forefront. I think the media has been doing a better and better job with diversifying the bands they highlight instead of just sticking to the most popular women in the scene. It’s all about doing the work and not being lazy about seeking it out in underground music.”

With all that said, what will the next decade of metal look like for us ladies? Well, on the assumption that the world even still exists by then, hope for continued recognition really rests in what’s going to maintain as a society in general—acknowledging that we’re ALL in this together, as hokey as I know that definitely sounds. Creativity can thrive in solitude, but teamwork really does make the dream work, or however the saying goes.

And, to be a team, you have to be inclusive not just of all genders and identities, but of all races, too. As a Black woman who writes about metal, and has for over 15 years, it sucks that this entire discourse is one I’m still having to partake in. Let’s keep it a buck though—it sucks that we’re still having conversations about rights, equality, and recognition at large, in general. Butler agrees.

“I think as long as we continue to realize that acceptance of all people in the genre will lead to growth and true community, we will continue on the ups and boot all those ugly ass Nazis out.”

That, and staying open-minded while still acknowledging how closed off metal started at its core. You can’t change form without looking at how you formed in the first place and part of that, at least in this context, involves developing and maintaining a willingness to accept our differences. Being “different” from the norm is what this music was all about in the first place, right? To Boster, that answer is yes, of course.

“I think what’s important is that we don’t lose sight of the roots of metal and hardcore as a movement of some kind to be the antithesis to modern society. As long as we can maintain that mentality in the balance of growth I think we’ll head in an inspiring direction. Ideally we would see an equal representation of all kinds of people across the board so that we wouldn’t need to emphasize when someone looks different than the usual cis white male.”

For Ferrero, that future involves expanding the boundaries of your expectations and creative approach. Metal has always been homogenous in looks and lately, in sound, and you can’t call for change if you’re just trying to do the same thing as everyone else.

“I feel like it’s deja vu. Too many bands releasing music. Too big of a lack of support by labels and managers since they’re more interested in what they’ll make versus what they’ll invest in to get a different return…Too many artists trying to be like other bands or have similar careers. The magic happens in the unexpected. The uniqueness is what rewrites new directions. Why label it? Why say ‘female-fronted?’ Why say ‘post-hardcore?’ Can’t it just be blank and androgynous? Here it is, just go listen.”

Just go listen.

The post More Than a ‘Female-Fronted’ Gimmick: Women in Metal Take on the Scene’s Misogyny appeared first on MetalSucks.

The aircrew involved with the recent publicity stunt filmed at Kid Rock‘s Nashville, TN mansion has been suspended according to NBC News. Rock, an outspoken conservative and friend of U.S. President Donald J. Trump, shared footage over the weekend on social media of two Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters doing a flyby over his Nashville,…

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Crossover kings, Southern-fried sludge merchants, groove-metal godfathers – Corrosion of Conformity have been called all of it and more across four decades of doing things entirely on their own terms. Good God / Baad Man is not so much a return as it is a reckoning. There are certainties in life: birth, death, and that … Continue reading Album Review: Corrosion Of Conformity – Good God / Baad Man

Kid Rock has been busy campaigning against Live Nation, doing a cold plunge with a denim-clad RFK Jr., and presumably rehearsing for the MAGA-friendly Rock The Country tour, but he’s maintaining some time for personal hijinks. For instance, Saturday his Twitter/X account posted footage of a US Army helicopter hovering outside his elevated Tennessee home. The pair of videos showed Rock, born Bob Ritchie, applauding and encouraging the chopper alongside a human-sized replica of the Statue of Liberty under a sign that reads “The Southern White House.”

The post Kid Rock Stunt Leads To Army Aircrew Suspension appeared first on Stereogum.

In some of the cooler underground rap that I’ve been hearing lately, I hear distinct echoes of cloud-rap, the mini-genre that generated a whole lot of early-’10s internet buzz and helped launch some big careers. There’s an argument that fakemink’s whole sound, for example, is just a glitchier mutation of cloud-rap. Back when he was…

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Chances are, if you’re reading Decibel Mag, you’re a big nerd about something. For San Francisco outfit Sleepbomb, they’re big nerds about movies. The band’s career to this point has been about scoring movies that didn’t have scores, like George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and, before that, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

On their latest album, Songs in the Key of Conan, Sleepbomb score a movie that already has a score: 1983’s Conan the Barbarian, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Though the record is heavy and doomy in many places, it’s a film score, so it has its quiet moments too, which is where Sleepbomb drop listeners in today. “A Gift of Crom” is a subdued, dreamy interlude that is easy to get immerse in.

“One of Charlie’s [Hernandez, guitar] favorite tracks, ‘A Gift of Crom’ is a meditative interlude within the chaos and brutality of Conan’s world,” explains bassist/synth player Tim Gotch. “The track begins as he unknowingly stumbles into the king’s barrow, first guitar, then synth, and finally bass and drums. As Conan explores the cave and discovers first the king and then the famed Atlantean sword, Claire Hamard’s haunting clarinet melody drifts in and out.”

Hamard, who departed the band shortly after recording vocals, keys and horns for the album, had this to say:

“In Songs in the Key of Conan, we still find the repetitive and experimental constructions characteristic of Sleepbomb, but with several unusual tracks, very melodic or fundamentally atmospheric, such as ‘A Gift from Crom,’ which add depth and complexity to the piece.

“On this album, we used several wind instruments with Matt Pankuch (we both play the clarinet, and he also plays the saxophone and flute), and we allowed ourselves to improvise over the harmonic base laid down by the guitars to further enhance the untamed aspect of the album – and of the film’s hero!”

You can dig into the new song and its accompanying video (which does not include any Conan the Barbarian movie footage) below. Koolarrrow Records will release the whole album on June 3.

The post Video Premiere: Sleepbomb – ‘A Gift of Crom’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Oakland death metal trio, NECROT, has officially joined the Metal Blade Records roster, marking a powerful new chapter for one of the underground’s most distinguished death metal bands! The signing coincides with NECROT’s upcoming appearance on the 2026 edition of the Decibel Magazine Tour.

The band comments, “It is extremely exciting to announce that NECROT has signed with Metal Blade Records! We’ve been a band for 15 years making death metal the way we want to and Metal Blade has been here for almost 45 years supporting extreme metal bands from all over the world. We feel confident that this new chapter will be great for us and we can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on for our next album! We are looking forward to seeing you guys on our upcoming tour, 30 dates across the US and Canada… and of course, stay tuned for more announcements from NECROT and Metal Blade!”

NECROT will take part in the 2026 Decibel Magazine Tour, joining technical death metal pioneers Cryptopsy, Italy’s brutal death conjurors, Fulci, and new death/grinders, Blood Monolith, for a devastating run across North America. The journey includes several NECROT headlining dates scattered throughout.

Tickets are on sale now. See all confirmed dates below.

NECROT Live:
4/23/2026 Backstage Bar & Billiards – Las Vegas, NV *
4/24/2026 InsideOut – Albuquerque, NM *
4/25/2026 89th St. – Oklahoma City, OK *
4/26/2026 The Hi Tone – Memphis, TN *
4/27/2026 Black Circle – Indianapolis, IN *
4/28/2026 Ace Of Cups – Columbus, OH *
4/29/2026 Capital City Music Hall – Harrisburg, PA *

Decibel Magazine Tour 2026 w/ Cryptopsy, Fulci, Blood Monolith:
4/30/2026 Palladium Upstairs – Worcester, MA
5/01/2026 Brooklyn Monarch – Brooklyn, NY
5/02/2026 Baltimore Soundstage – Baltimore, MD
5/03/2026 Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest – Philadelphia, PA
5/05/2026 Masquerade (Hell) – Atlanta, GA
5/07/2026 White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX
5/08/2026 The Studio – Dallas, TX
5/09/2026 Come And Take It Live – Austin, TX
5/12/2026 The Regent – Los Angeles, CA
5/13/2026 Brick By Brick – San Diego, CA
5/14/2026 Cornerstone – Berkeley, CA
5/16/2026 Hawthorne Theater – Portland, OR
5/17/2026 El Corazon – Seattle, WA
5/19/2026 Ace’s High Saloon – Salt Lake City, UT *
5/20/2026 Oriental Theater – Denver, CO
5/22/2026 Fine Line Music Café – Minneapolis, MN
5/23/2026 Bottom Lounge – Chicago, IL
5/24/2026 Crofoot Ballroom – Detroit, MI
5/25/2026 The Grog Shop – Cleveland, OH
5/26/2026 Preserving Underground – Pittsburgh, PA
5/27/2026 Lee’s Place – Toronto, ON
5/28/2026 Fairmount Theatre – Montreal, QC
5/29/2026 Geno’s – Portland, ME *

* NECROT Into The Labyrinth Tour 2026 Headlining Dates

European Festival Dates:
7/01 – 05/2026 Obscene Extreme Festival – Trutnov, CZ
8/06 – 08/2026 Sonic Blast Festival – Vila Praia de Âncora, PE
8/13 – 15/2026 Frantic Fest – Francavilla al Mare, IT
8/15/2026 Dynamo MetalFest – Eindhoven, NL

Formed in 2011 in Oakland, California, NECROT features former members of Bay Area acts Acephalix, Vastum, and Saviours. The band’s debut LP, Blood Offerings, reached #29 on the Billboard Hard Rock chart and #4 on Decibel Magazine’s Top 40 Albums of 2017.

The band’s most recent studio output, 2024’s Lifeless Birth, continues their ascent to the forefront of American aural extremity, pushing the boundaries of style and continuing to recast metal in their image. Lifeless Birth earned the #3 spot on Billboard’s Top New Artist chart upon its first week of release. Elsewhere, the record took the #4 position on the Current Hard Music Albums chart, #6 on the Independent Record Label chart, and more.

Recorded with Grammy winning producer Greg Wilkinson, who has helmed all three NECROT albums and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, Lifeless Birth pivots fluidly between technical intricacy, progressive poise, and all-out brutality.

NECROT has toured the world with such acts as Cannibal Corpse, Carcass, Municipal Waste, and many more, solidifying their place in the modern metal scene.

NECROT:
Luca Indrio – vocals, bass
Chad Gailey – drums
Sonny Reinhardt – guitars

https://www.necrot.com

https://www.facebook.com/cyclesofpain

https://www.instagram.com/necrot_official

https://necrot.bandcamp.com/music

https://www.metalblade.com

Source: EARSPLIT PR